The game won't be a point-and-click title in the traditional sense, but it will retain King's Quest's adventure roots. Below, you will find our conversation with Activision's MacLean Marshall about reviving Sierra and King's Quest.

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One of the more surprising announcements during Gamescom was Activision's revival of the classic Sierra brand. The original Sierra, founded by Ken and Roberta Williams in 1979, was known for the King's Quest, Space Quest, and Police Quest series (among many others). Activision has big plans for the brand that include classic franchises and brand new creations.

We had a chance to speak with Activision's MacLean Marshall about the project and how Activision came to resurrect the Sierra name. "There's one piece of the puzzle, which is that Sierra was a brand that we acquired with Vivendi," Marshall says. "It's been dormant and there wasn't a place for it, and we didn't know what we were going to do with it. Then, over the however many years, everyone's been watching this indie movement. There was that angle, where we had this really nostalgic brand that most gamers to varying degrees by age know. We wanted to find a way to expand our digital portfolio."

When we spoke with Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg about Sierra, he called it a skunkworks project. Marshall provided more detail about the size and scope of the team. "This whole Sierra thing is a passion project for a handful of us at Activision, no more than maybe 15 at any given time," he says.

"They are doing a contemporary reboot of King's Quest. It's not just an HD port," he says. "But that's not also to say that, maybe King's Quest is or isn't the right one, that's not on the table, too. It could be HD remakes of original Sierra content. It could be contemporary reimaginings of the old Sierra IPs. It could be stuff that's new, kick-***, awesome IP that has nothing to do with the old Sierra brand, but will be a Sierra thing when it launches."

As for how The Odd Gentlemen are approaching the franchise, don't expect that the gameplay will be the same as you remember from the decades old series. "There's not much I can say about King's Quest," Marshall tells us. "All I can say is that I've seen it, and it's not a point-and-click game. But it looks *** awesome."

Activision may consider multiple titles in the same franchise that allow for different takes on the same characters and universes. "Great IP can come from anywhere," Marshall says. "It's really early for us right now, and I don't think anything's off the table. That's exactly the kind of thinking that's behind this. You could have two different kinds of King's Quest game, or a different kind of Geometry Wars game. It really just comes down to the right developer, the right project, the right passion for each of these ideas from their side and from our side. We're really looking at these things, whether it's with The Odd Gentlemen or with Lucid Games or whomever we end up announcing next, we're looking at these as long-term partnerships. I think any cool idea is open for consideration."

Activision is looking at Sierra as a long-term proposition and hopes to woo and cultivate relationships with developers. "It's about finding the right devs, working on the right projects," Marshall says. "I mean, why would someone want to work with Sierra? Sierra is the core of us at Activision and we're all passionate about this. We figure we can help. You can look at one way, in that these guys make games, and we know how to publish games. That's not to say that indies can't self-publish, but maybe they wouldn't be able to do it with this much visibility. We made a big deal revealing Sierra. We made a big deal about revealing Geometry Wars."

As for the future, Sierra is set to grow through the rest of 2014 and into 2015. "We are talking to a handful of indie devs about different projects, and I'm really excited about a lot of them that I can't talk about," Marshall says. "We're planning to announce more before the end of the year and early next year. This is a big deal for us."

Yes, because changing up the formula worked so well in King's Quest VIII...
Seriously, though, there's a reason why that was the last KQ game. I'm excited about this "reboot," and I'm completely open-minded to approaching KQ from a slightly different angle, but I also know it'll be far too easy to botch it. I have faith, Odd Gentlemen! Make it great!

Wow! Sounds fantastic! This in no way, shape or form sounds like a publisher raiding the corpses of old beloved IPs and handing them off to indie developers in order to have "cred".
Really? Looks awesome.... who cares about game play? Yeah - sounds wonderfully managed. This is going to make Mask of Eternity look like The Venus di Milo, isn't it?

Hey Guys, Matt Korba here Creative director on King's Quest. Thanks Michael for updating the article. The game is an Adventure game, one we are very passionate about. You can always get the latest updates on twitter from @theoddgentlemen

A couple of these comments make my head hurt. Check your history. The first several King's Quest games WEREN'T point and click. Point and Click was an invention of the early 90s. Lots of us played games all the way through the 80s without a mouse even attached to the computer.
It was called a text parser. And it was an additional challenge.

The point to this crap I can tell is the eventual layout for a foundation for an sub service much like EA. Sad news is people claim that they are getting tired of re-ported games and HD remakes but loudest of these schmucks will likely defend this till he/she/it gets burned.

Kings field? Really? Are you asses so deprived of your gaming that you need a retread of a retread? This is why gamers are worst bunch of decision makers out there because majority of the choices are based on impulse or frustration. As much as we blame publishers and devs, the worst culprit behind destroying intuitive, creative games are the gamers themselves.

OK, I'm optimistically excited about this. Sierra and LucasArts adventure games made my childhood, First off, it sounds like this is a passion project for those involved, not just a churned out for profit, take advantage of having the rights to a beloved franchise move. There have been new, non point and click adventure game ideas that I'd like to see incorporated from games like 'Going Home' or 'Amnesia'. Just please stay away from combat in Kings Quest like they used to ruin the franchise with Mask of Eternity.

Also if this eventually results in a true Space Quest 7 I will be forever grateful.

OK, I'm optimistically excited about this. Sierra and LucasArts adventure games made my childhood, First off, it sounds like this is a passion project for those involved, not just a churned out for profit, take advantage of having the rights to a beloved franchise move. There have been new, non point and click adventure game ideas that I'd like to see incorporated from games like 'Going Home' or 'Amnesia'. Just please stay away from combat in Kings Quest like they used to ruin the franchise with Mask of Eternity.

Also if this eventually results in a true Space Quest 7 I will be forever grateful.